this bus is optimistic

Despite its assertive yellow color, the bus moves haltingly, stuttering through Mumbai streets erratically, incessantly, like one of the flies that ram desperately against its misted windows. Yet this bus is optimistic. It speeds towards the red light unflinchingly, like its decisive energy could convince the bulbs to turn green. The traffic surges, and it moves forward, eating up the ground hungrily, hopefully, stopping only inches from the taxi that cut into the lane as if it only just realized it wouldn’t make it. The air conditioning periodically fluctuates in strength in temperature; the bus is panting. When it reaches the sea of red lights and exhaust fumes that is the highway, it weaves, switching from the motionless second lane to the only marginally less motionless third lane. The bus defiantly slips into a niche, ignoring the laws of space and traffic and the disparaging horns of other drivers.
--Janine